Scope-sensitive ethics: capturing the core intuition motivating utilitarianism

Abstract

Critiques of utilitarianism often stem from its counterintuitive outcomes and neglect of personal identity. However, the core intuition of utilitarianism - that what is good or bad is universal and should be aspired or avoided beyond individual, everyday lives - is still appealing. Yet, the attempt to define a precise and complete guide for action based on utilitarian values often results in unintended problems. Proposing the concept of “scope-sensitivity”, the author shifts the focus from valuing all ethical interests on a single metric to endorsing actions that increase intuitively valuable aspects of individual lives (such as happiness), or decrease intuitively disvaluable aspects (such as suffering), and intensifying the endorsement if the actions significantly increase or decrease these aspects. The author hopes that the concept of scope-sensitivity captures the most crucial aspect of their ethical world view that can help guide meaningful moral actions, while allowing for the inherent imprecision or uncertainty in the moral realm. – AI-generated abstract.